Senate Recap for March 30

With just two weeks left in the 83rd session of the Associated Students of the University of Nevada (and only one left as of print time), the ASUN senate was kept busy Wednesday by seven different pieces of legislation that hit the senate floor.

The first resolution up for debate would support adding three full-time positions within the ASUN Center for Student Engagement, was approved fairly easily. Discussion of the bill was short and only Sen.Ashley Loera, College of Liberal Arts, cast a vote against it.

Up next was a resolution that would officially approve ASUN’s strategic plan, itself written by President Caden Fabbi. While some senators had some clarification questions, the body was unanimously in favor of the plan as a whole, and the measure was approved easily.

Another resolution, this time in favor of creating priority registration for student veterans, was also approved with relative ease. Although some concerns were brought up over exactly when these students should be allowed to register in relation to other priority students, such as athletes or honor students, the senate decided that it wasn’t up to ASUN to decide that so much as the university administration.

The next two bills, however, ran into some stumbling blocks. Each of the two bills would make changes to the language in the elections section of the Statutes of the Associated Students, ASUN’s big book of rules and regulations. Current Elections Chair Dalton Mack expressed concern to the Committee on Government Operations that students could theoretically be in the room while votes for the ASUN general elections are counted, which could distract the elections chair and the attorney general while they counted votes.

These new measures would explicitly bar any student except the elections chair, attorney general and anyone else deemed necessary from being in the room. The majority of the senate, however, found the move to be largely undemocratic and thought it a barrier to transparency.

With only two votes in favor, the measure was roundly rejected. The next bill, which dealt with the presence of observers who were present on behalf of candidates, was not picked up for discussion and was, by extension, defeated.

Fabbi and chief of staff Raina Benford had also asked the senate for a bill which would put the Chief of Staff in charge of fundraising for the John Mackay Endowment, as the chief of staff has relatively few official duties written into the SAS. After some debate over whether the COS or the deputy COS should get the job, the senate passed the bill as is.

Finally, Sen. Michael Upton, College of Agriculture, Biotechnology and Natural Resources, was officially censured. Upton had accrued more than five censure points by missing meetings and failing to accurately record office hours. In a statement on the senate floor, Upton apologized, but assured that the points were simply due to forgetfulness.

Jacob Solis can be reached at jsolis@sagebrush.unr.edu and on Twitter @TheSagebrush.